Easy Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups Recipe

I decided to go Vegan for Lent which technically ends today, and I’m seriously surprised by how simple it was (there were difficult moments) but overall it wasn’t too much of a struggle. It did cost me a bit more than I wanted it to, but nothing too extraneous. It wasn’t the food itself that was expensive, it was really building my base of cooking supplies that was the bulk of the cost. I cooked a lot more, and learned a lot more about what I like (and don’t like) as I opened up my palette much further than just grilled chicken Caesar salads.

Once I got into the swing of meal prepping for the week, I started to experiment with things I was curious about. One of those things was dessert. I’m a huge dessert fan and an even bigger chocolate fan. But I’ve never particularly enjoyed dark chocolate on its own, only when mixed with other foods/snacks. I started adding dark chocolate to my Gluten Free Vegan Waffle Recipe and wondered why I couldn’t just make my own chocolate.

As I headed to Pinterest, as I often do for just about anything edible I found some really quick and easy Vegan chocolate recipes that didn’t require many ingredients. Then I looked further and found recipes on how to make Peanut Butter cups (Reeses peanut butter cups are some of my biggest guilty pleasures). So what did I do… I mixed/blended recipes and created my own concontion that turned out great if I do say so myself. I made a batch for my household, and will be making another batch for my co workers to give a shot this up coming week. Best of all this recipe takes about 20 minutes of prep (10 minutes of which you’re just waiting for chocolate in the fridge) and can be done at a moment’s notice with plenty of ingredients you already have in the house! Sounds like a win win to me!!

Instructions:

Grate the cocoa butter and melt it. You can create a double broiler by placing a ceramic bowl over a sauce pan of boiling water (about 1 inch) or you can simply place it in the microwave. If you are in a real rush and don’t have time to grate the cocoa butter, you can place chunks of it into the microwave or double broiler, but it will make it a bit difficult to measure the amount.

Once the cocoa butter is melted add in your maple syrup and whisk until they have mixed thoroughly. Then add in your cocoa or cacao powder (I used cocoa powder but plan on using cacao the next time), vanilla extract and sea salt. Continue to whisk until they are completely blended into a nice velvety chocolate liquid.

Pour the liquid into tiny miniature cupcake foil wrappers. I used the regular sized ones initially and had to make more chocolate. You’re going to want to put one teaspoon of chocolate ( or tablespoon depending on the size of your wrappers), into the cupcake paper and using the back of a spoon make sure the chocolate is covering the sides of the cup cake foil. Once that is done pop the cupcake pan into the fridge or freezer for 10 minutes.

While you wait for your chocolate base to solidify, start working on the peanut butter. Take your cup of natural peanut butter and mix in 3 tablespoons of coconut oil. This will help with the solidifying process later on and make it super creamy and delicious. Put the peanut butter and coconut oil mix into the microwave for 15 seconds and stir it up until you get a nice creamy liquid consistency.

Take the cupcake pan out of the fridge and spoon 1 teaspoon into each cupcake wrapper. You may adjust the amount depending on the size of your wrapper. I used about 1.5 teaspoons in each. Then add another layer of chocolate to the top of the peanut butter and use a spoon to cover up any visible peanut butter.

Place the chocolate back into the fridge/freezer for 30mins- 1 hour & VOILA amazing easy vegan chocolate peanut butter cups. They are free of refined sugars, and you know everything that is in them!

This recipe yielded 13 peanut butter cups (they are pretty large think Reeses full size) and were so delicious. You can tweak the recipe a bit by adding toppings, or changing the butter used in the central (I’m thinking I might try almond butter next).

If you enjoyed this recipe and want to get your hands on more Vegan recipes, tips & tricks follow along on our Vegan Pinterest board below. You can also follow me on Snapchat: @MJBTHEONE for daily updates on my meals and how I’m feeling about my vegan journey. And always feel free to share if you found it helpful! And share your recipe attempts on all social media using: #TNTgoesVegan

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